Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit Serves Up Real-World AR Kart Racing

Nintendo made of a bunch of announcements for the 35th anniversary of the Super Mario franchise today, but the reveal of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is one that caught us completely off guard. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit attempts to take the always-popular arcade racer into the real world by giving you a physical toy kart that you'll race around your living room using a Nintendo Switch.

It's a bit strange at first glance, but it seems fun nonetheless. You'll create tracks by laying down four different gates and then driving through them to define the track layout. Using the Switch, you'll guide your physical kart (manned by either Mario or Luigi) through those gates, with an AR camera on top of the kart inserting item boxes and hazards into the game. Your kart will react to those hazards and items too, whether it's getting a boost of speed or stopping when it gets hit by an item from another player.

It sounds like there will be a few game modes to play as well. In Grand Prix mode, you'll be racing against Koopalings, and it's here that you'll be able to unlock course customizations or new costumes for Mario and Luigi. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit also supports four-player local multiplayer, but that could get tricky as each player needs their own Switch and game (with the accompanying Kart) in order to play.

Indeed, putting together a four-player local multiplayer match will be no inexpensive feat, as a copy of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit will run you $99.99. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit will be available in Mario and Luigi sets, and the game seems ripe to add more racers from the Mario Kart franchise with future sets.

We'll see Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit launch on Nintendo Switch on October 16th. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been one of the Switch's most popular titles ever since it released, so it'll be interesting to see if the market for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is big as well.